The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that all visa applications will transition to an online platform no later than March 1. This development was disclosed by the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, during a discussion on ‘X Spaces’ hosted by influencer Dr. Segun Awosanya.
Dr. Tunji-Ojo noted the establishment of a centralized visa approval center, a move aimed at ensuring uniformity, strengthening national security, and curbing corruption in the visa issuance process.
“The visa approval centre is also an achievement for this administration because we also now have a centralised visa approval centre. This will stem corruption, ensure national security, and merge the visa regime to ensure uniformity. Before March 1st, all visa application systems will be online to ensure proper vetting,” he stated.
The minister further discussed efforts to modernize and secure Nigeria’s data infrastructure, citing the creation of a state-of-the-art data center at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology Innovation Complex (BATTIC). The complex, located at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) headquarters in Sauka, Abuja, boasts an 8.3-petabyte capacity—a significant upgrade from the previous lack of centralized data management.
Dr. Tunji-Ojo explained, “We were able to build one of the biggest data centres in the history of Nigeria, which is the 8.3-petabyte centre. Before then, we had an issue because we inherited a Nigeria Immigration Service that had no data centre, where the data of Nigerians was obviously being saved in private capacities with various contractors, and that was a gross contravention of the Data Protection Act.”
He noted that the new data center addresses these challenges and aligns with global standards. Previously, the absence of a unified data system posed risks to national security and violated due process in handling sensitive documents.
